INTERESTING: the benefits of failure

Saturday, June 7, 2008

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=91232541

The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination
by J.K. Rowling

***Begin Quote***

Delivering a commencement address is a great responsibility; or so I thought until I cast my mind back to my own graduation. The commencement speaker that day was the distinguished British philosopher Baroness Mary Warnock. Reflecting on her speech has helped me enormously in writing this one, because it turns out that I can’t remember a single word she said. This liberating discovery enables me to proceed without any fear that I might inadvertently influence you to abandon promising careers in business, law or politics for the giddy delights of becoming a gay wizard.

You see? If all you remember in years to come is the ‘gay wizard’ joke, I’ve still come out ahead of Baroness Mary Warnock. Achievable goals: the first step towards personal improvement.

Actually, I have wracked my mind and heart for what I ought to say to you today. I have asked myself what I wish I had known at my own graduation, and what important lessons I have learned in the 21 years that has expired between that day and this.

I have come up with two answers. On this wonderful day when we are gathered together to celebrate your academic success, I have decided to talk to you about the benefits of failure. And as you stand on the threshold of what is sometimes called ‘real life’, I want to extol the crucial importance of imagination.

***End Quote***

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INTERESTING: Keep a one-sentence journal

Friday, June 6, 2008

http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2008/06/your-happiness.html

YOUR Happiness Project: Keep a one-sentence journal.

***Begin Quote***

I’m working on my Happiness Project, and you should have one, too! Everyone’s project will look different, but it’s the rare person who can’t benefit. Join in — no need to catch up, just jump in right now. Each Friday’s post will help you think about your own happiness project.

Yesterday was the Little Girl’s last day in the “Purple Room,” which is what her nursery school calls the class for the school’s youngest children. She only went twice a week, for less than three hours, but the Purple Room was a very big part of her life.

There’s something so inexpressibly sweet about this age and this first experience of school. I’m having an emotion that I can only describe as preemptive nostalgia for this time. Her last morning there was yesterday, but already, I feel deeply sentimental about it.

The days are long, but the years are short.

For that reason, I’m so happy that I started keeping my one-sentence journal; otherwise I would worry that I wouldn’t remember any of the details about this time – the teeny tiny sinks, the coat hooks in the hallway marked with the children’s photos, the play kitchen and the board books.

***End Quote***

Interesting concept?

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INTERESTING: Memories of my youth and the years of the Japanese occupation

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

http://www.dutch-east-indies.com/story/index.htm

Memories of my youth and the years of the Japanese occupation
in the former Dutch East Indies during World War Two

***Begin Quote***

After a wonderful youth in the Dutch East Indies, today Indonesia, my family and I went through three and a half years Japanese occupation. I lost my father, I lost the country I loved, I lost everything, but I kept my memories.

My son advised me to start a website and write all those memories down. So here I am, 79 years old, sitting behind my computer, going back to the Dutch East Indies.

Elizabeth van Kampen

***End Quote***

Absolutely stunning. It could have all been lost to age, infirmity, or death.

Take a few hours and read this site.

Then, you’ll know why we need to live at peace.

Tragic! Yet, empowering.

Sigh, I’m humbled at what some people can make with their lemons.

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INTERESTING: The Last Doughboy

Monday, May 26, 2008

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/23/AR2008052302433.html

The Last Doughboy
World War I veteran Frank Buckles, 107, in March.
By George F. Will
Sunday, May 25, 2008; Page B07

***Begin Quote***

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va. — Numbers come precisely from the agile mind and nimble tongue of Frank Buckles, who seems bemused to say that 4,734,991 Americans served in the military during America’s involvement in the First World War and that 4,734,990 are gone. He is feeling fine, thank you for asking.

***End Quote***

Amazing at 107!

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INTERESTING:

Friday, March 21, 2008

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/movies/
21scofield.html?_r=1&ei=5088&en=271a7ed77a7e8020&
ex=1363838400&adxnnl=1&oref=slogin&partner=rssny
t&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1206096749-NiX7FD1+OswuTXMjTST7wA

Paul Scofield, British Actor, Dies at 86
By BENEDICT NIGHTINGALE
Published: March 21, 2008

***Begin Quote***

Paul Scofield, the renowned British actor who created the indelible role of Sir Thomas More in Robert Bolt’s “Man for All Seasons” and then recreated it on film in 1966 with an Oscar-winning performance, died on Wednesday near his home in southern England. He was 86.

***and***

But the role that brought Mr. Scofield international renown was that of Sir Thomas More in “A Man for All Seasons,” which opened in London in 1960. The mix of moral strength, intelligence, melancholy and wily grace he brought to Henry VIII’s principled but ultimately disgraced Lord Chancellor won him a Tony Award for his Broadway debut in the role in the 1961-62 season. That was followed by an Academy Award as best actor when Mr. Zinnemann directed him in the movie version of the play in 1966.

***End Quote***

I wish I could have seen him in the play. The movie was one of those events that changed me. I “knew” from many years of “Catholic School” about the story of Sir Thomas Moore. But, his portrayal in the movie made it “real”. The quiet valor of the hopeless struggle. It taught me that it really doesn’t matter if you win or lose. In the end, we are all dead. But it does matter how you play the game. How you acquit yourself. The panache used in daily life.

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INTERESTING: Last man standing

Monday, March 17, 2008

http://www.herald-mail.com/?cmd=displaystory&story_id=188712&format=html

March 16, 2008
Last man standing
By DAVE McMILLION

***Begin Quote***

CHARLES TOWN, W.VA. – He’s the last one in America who can tell stories about his experiences during World War I.

And he lives just outside of Charles Town.

Frank Woodruff Buckles became the last known surviving American veteran of the First World War this year, and his family is busy keeping track of his schedule as he grants interviews and makes appearances.

The 107-year-old veteran was honored 10 days ago during ceremonies in Washington, D.C. He visited with President Bush at the White House and a photographic portrait of Buckles was unveiled at the Pentagon.

 

***End Quote***

Wow. And, he was a POW. Stern stuff.

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INTERESTING: Roadmap to Success?

Thursday, March 13, 2008

FROM A RECENT VENDOR EMAIL

***Begin Quote***

Roadmap to Success Series: Transitioning to Managed Services
? Register for Kaseya’s Roadmap to Success Series!

Managed Services is a hot topic within the reseller, systems integrator and service provider community. It is a lucrative business model that enhances customer satisfaction by improving IT infrastructure management while increasing service provider margins. It is a key step to retaining clients and building a predictable revenue stream. There are many challenges including; what services to offer, how to price them and how to migrate customers.

***End Quote***

Objection, your honor, assumes facts not yet in evidence!

This tacitly assumes that success is a destination. And, that it’s the same for everyone.

:-)

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INTERESTING: Life isn’t fair

Thursday, March 6, 2008

http://www.happiness-project.com/happiness_project/2008/03/life-isnt-fair.html

Life isn’t fair, or, why people who are irritable get more irritable, and people who are cheery get more cheery.

***Begin Quote***

I love finding a precise term for things I’ve observed in the word. It’s so satisfying to discover concepts like Schadenfreude, or “acting in reliance,” or wabi-sabi. One of my favorite parts of writing my book Power Money Fame Sex: A User’s Guide was making up new terms: platinum rule, eye stray, object lust, ubiniquity.

***End Quote***

‘pleasure taken from someone else’s misfortune’
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schadenfreude

an economic harm for acting in reliance on a party who failed to fulfill their obligation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reliance_damages_(law)

beauty that is “imperfect, impermanent, and incomplete”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wabi-sabi

Platinum Rule as “Never ever, ever, ever ‘love’ thy neighbor.” His point was that one should never date someone seen on a regular basis, e.g. someone at the same workplace, a next door neighbor, etc. because such relationships never work out in the end and lead to never-ending suffering, as those involved would see each other constantly.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Platinum_Rule

“eye stray”?
Girl watching while with your significant other?

“object lust”?

ubiniquity?

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INTERESTING: If IP Is Property, Where Is the Property Tax?

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/02/27/0018224&from=rss

If IP Is Property, Where Is the Property Tax?
Posted by kdawson on Tuesday February 26, @08:36PM
from the making-the-world-safe-for-mickey dept.
Government

***Begin Quote***

nweaver writes “In a response to the LA Times editorial on copyright which we discussed a week ago, the paper published a response arguing: ‘If Intellectual Property is actually property, why isn’t it covered by a property tax?’ If copyright maintenance involved paying a fee and registration, this would keep Mickey Mouse safely protected by copyright, while ensuring that works that are no longer economically relevant to the copyright holder pass into the public domain, where the residual social value can serve the real purpose of copyright: to enhance the progress of science and useful arts. Disclaimer: the author is my father.”

***End Quote***

Interesting question. Is there such a thing as “intellectual property”?

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text


INTERESTING: catnaps may improve performance

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7254555.stm

Six-minute nap ‘may boost memory’

***Begin Quote***

Even the shortest of catnaps may be enough to improve performance in memory tests, say German scientists.

***End Quote***

Maybe this reinforces the American student cramming in an “all nighter” for the test, which requires the recall of lots of irrelevant factoids. That’s what passes for eddykation in the gooferment skoolz.

So maybe the students “discovered” this independently and passed the meme along in folk lore?

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INTERESTING: Don’t worry FEMA will be here soon.

Saturday, February 9, 2008

Old Friends

Don’t worry FEMA will be here soon.

One of the best youtube videos I’ve seen. Not that I’ve watched a lot, but this has the Hollywood feel to it. Is this the deathknell for big budget Hollywood? Might take some time, but it could be. Like looking down the railroad tracks, you can see all the way to convergence. If avian flu, or something like it, doesn’t derail civilization.

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INTERESTING: A lesson to do not hesitate to act

Thursday, January 31, 2008

http://www.ncc-1776.org/tle2008/tle453-20080127-03.html

South Wins!!
by Russell D. Longcore

***Begin Quote***

Over 150 million people are not killed by governments and wars during the 20th century. All because Jefferson Davis did not hesitate to act on a day in July of 1861.

One Man Can Make A Difference.

***End Quote***

Interesting observation.

But like shoulda, coulda, and woulda probably not overly useful.

However, I do like alternate history better than what we’ve got!

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INTERESTING: homicide of an unborn child

Sunday, January 27, 2008

http://www.covenantnews.com/abortion/archives/037719.html

January 26, 2008
Driver Charged in Crash That Killed Woman’s Unborn Child

***Begin Quote***

KITTANNING, Pa. — An Armstrong County woman has been charged after a car she was driving crashed into another vehicle, killing the other driver’s unborn child. Fifty-three-year-old Sheila Marlene Altman of Ford City has been arraigned on charges of vehicular homicide, drunken driving, homicide of an unborn child, involuntary manslaughter and aggravated assault.

***End Quote***

What I find interesting is that the gooferment picks and chooses when someone becomes a person deserving of its protection. The Constitution does cite the “right to life” as one of the principle reasons for the existence of any government. In this story, it’s an “unborn child”; if they were talking about abortion, it would have been a fetus. I’m confused.

Please don’t think I’m for driving carelessly, negligently, or stupidly. I am for a little consistency.

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INTERESTING: Another lesson that I didn’t get in school

Saturday, January 26, 2008

http://www.frugalsquirrels.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum;f=64;hardset=0;start_point=0;DaysPrune=0

Another lesson that I didn’t get in school.

(I’m learning even at my advanced age that there are many!)

I read some “patriot fiction” from the above link. Mostly TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It) stuff.

(Amazingly good, Some surprisingly long. Interesting twists. Some technical stuff obviously cut ‘n’ pasted.)

The interesting part of it is that one quickly realizes that humanity can’t survive without the cooperation of all the folks.

That’s clearly a lesson that the politicians have “forgotten”. As you listen to how they pander, pontificate, and prevaricate in their speeches and debates, one realizes how they miss the essence of society and how “short” the fall on the “leadership standard ruler”.

That’s clearly a lesson that the people have never learned.

That’s a lesson that “big business” has to relearn. Management gurus like Tom Peters and the quality guys have been stressing for ages to no avail. Having come thru layoffs many times, it’s clear that some organizations don’t value their “human resources”.

People first; you can’t succeed without them. Heck, you can’t survive without them. You need to find the ways to align interests.

Another lesson that I didn’t get in school.

Sigh!

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INTERESTING: Bobby Fischer, American chess master

Friday, January 18, 2008

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20080118/D8U89N681.html

World Chess Champion Bobby Fischer Dies
Jan 18, 7:26 AM (ET)
By GUDJON HELGASON

*** begin quote ***

REYKJAVIK, Iceland (AP) – Bobby Fischer, the reclusive American chess master who became a Cold War icon when he dethroned the Soviet Union’s Boris Spassky as world champion in 1972, has died. He was 64.

***End Quote***

They say the line between genius and madness is very grey.

I played a lot of chess as a child. (I was a rated chess and bridge player. And, if I was born a couple of decades later, then I might have been a poker millionaire. I knew the math side; would have had to learn the people side.) I knew of Fischer before he was “popular”. I followed his games in the chess rags and chess clubs in the Greenwich Village. In fact, at chess, you can quickly see that you are out classed with no hope of ever getting better. His games were like that. I found many people, who while better than I, opined that he was the “Cassius Clay” of our “sport”. After that point, you’re either just kidding yourself or wasting time. So, I moved on to find my niche at something I was unique at. (I’m still looking!?!)

I hope he found peace.

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INTERESTING: Those with the least amount of talent use vulgarity

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/01/britney_anna_nicole_and_the_fu.html

January 06, 2008
Britney, Anna Nicole and the Future of America
By Bob Weir

***Begin Quote***

Rob and Laura Petrie walked into the bedroom, doffed their robes, revealing full-length cotton pajamas, gave each other a peck on the lips and retired for the night, in separate beds. That was the public state of our morals in the fifties and early sixties. The Dick Van Dyke Show was one of the top shows in the Nielson ratings during a time when America’s standards of decency were suitable entertainment for every age group.

Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz had a zany but loving relationship which was always humorous without ever being licentious. Parents could watch television with their children and have no fear that their innocence would be stolen with the turn of a knob. Forty years later, we have “advanced” to scantily clad women and men jumping into bed with (and on) each other and leaving little to the imagination about their lustful purposes.

Those with the least amount of talent use vulgarity to shock their way to fame and fortune. Partially nude bodies, undulating in paroxysms of feigned passion was once restricted to X-rated movies on the side streets of the big cities. Now, it’s available with a stroke of the remote or thrust into plain view with a click of the mouse.

***End Quote***

This really resonates!

When one thinks of the end of the Roman Empire, debauchery, debased currency, the absence of civic virtue, and the mob in the Colosseum come to mind.

But, it always starts much much earlier.

With the failure of virtue in the individual?

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INTERESTING: for almost a century we’ve watched stranded towns and houses fall one by one

Saturday, January 5, 2008

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/2008-01/emptied-north-dakota/bowden-text.html

 

The Emptied Prairie
North Dakota Ghost Towns Speak Of An Irreversible Decline
by Charles Bowden

***Begin Quote***

This is the place where American assumptions about the land proved to be wrong. The homesteaders believed rain followed the plow. In the grasslands of western Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas, they learned better. And so for almost a century we’ve watched stranded towns and houses fall one by one like autumn leaves in the chill of October. In most of the United States, abandoned buildings are a sign of change and shifting economic opportunities. On the High Plains, they always mean that something in the earth and the sky mutinied against the settlers.

***End Quote***

How can we say that we have no room for immigration?

I bet some entrepreneurial ethnic group (i.e., Hutus; the Montenyards; the Kurds, the Irish; the Chinese), who are persecuted in their home land, could shoot thru the Golden Door and turn these places into “gold mines”. Liberty does wonders.

But, we’ll never know because we are busy building fences to keep “outsiders” out. (And, “insiders” in?)

Sigh!

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INTERESTING: TOD — a globe-wide universal constant

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

http://distributedresearch.net/blog/2007/12/09/half-an-hour

FOLLOWING UP AN EXCHANGE OF COMMENTS

>local time on the clock is more than just a number.

Hmmm, interesting. So, it makes a difference if lunch is at “noon local” or “1700 GMT”?

>actually influence behaviour and particularly social synchronicity.

I’m hard pressed to see the “synch” impacted by what is essentially a label.

>For example, If the local time was effectively random

But it’s not “random”; it’s a globe-wide universal constant.

>what’s the best time to pull in for lunch?

When you’re hungry?

:-)

Seriously! Isn’t it more likely that figuring out a plane or train connection from afar is complicated by the lack of a universal time constant.

Just working in a two time zone company with Microsoft Outlook screwing up meetings for travelers, I keep coming back to the idea of GMT. Like that proverbially “stopped clock” being right twice a day.

>the trains would run better without any rush hour

I think you still have rush hour, or hours — here in the NYC, but we would just assign another number to label it. NYC 8 to 5 would be GMT13 to GMT20. Maybe Dolly Parton has to redo her hit song, but we’d all profit from the simplification.

>if the clock strikes three it’s time for tea

GMT15?

>

And England will always be the center of the world!

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INTERESTING: who comes out of the Temple huddle to accept their symbolic handshake?

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

http://scarletknights.com/basketball-women/news/release.asp?prID=5999

No. 6 Rutgers Rolls Past Temple, 70-34
Scarlet Knights Notch Fourth Straight Victory
Posted on 12/30/2007 4:38:13 PM

***Begin Quote***

PISCATAWAY, N.J. – Three players scored in double figures as the No. 6 Rutgers women’s basketball team picked up its fourth straight win, a 70-34 home victory over Atlantic 10 opponent Temple Sunday afternoon at the Louis Brown Athletic Center.

***End Quote***

Now, Frau has season tickets to the RU women’s games. She’s a subway alumni.

(No connection to the University. Just live in the neighborhood. We’ve been going since before they went “big time”. Frau played semi-pro and was just born a decade too soon. What could have been? And, she thoughly enjoys the game of basketball and especially when the “girls” — some of them are well past that label — play well. They don’t have to “win”; just play well.)

Now I’ve seen more games than I care to count. And, the other day I was surprised.

(Not Casablanca style shocked, just absolutely surprised.)

Many teams have the routine when the starting line up is announced the started runs over to the opponent’s huddle, and shakes someone’s hand as a sign of something. Usually, some assistant coach, like a George job, steps out and represents the coach.

Now Temple’s coach, Dawn Staley, is something of a celebrity. She’s an icon of women’s basketball. Great career in college. WNBA. College coach. One could imagine that to a current player she represents what they would like to become. So I would imagine that shaking her hand would be something extra ordinary.

So, ready for the surprise?

When the RU starters were announced, who comes out of the Temple huddle to accept their symbolic handshake?

None other than Dawn Staley herself.

I pointed that out to the clique of season ticket holders around me who are like a pseudo family. And, for each of the five players who came to shake her hand, she held it for a second and presumably said something to them. One even got a hug! I could be imagining things but them seem to leave that handshake with just a little more spring in their step. As I say, I’ve seen a lot of these, and this one was exceptional.

That’s an exemplar of what sport’s icons should be.

It would have been easy for her to blow that off. But she didn’t. And, maybe in the grand scheme of things, it’s a small matter than no one will notice. I did, and thought that it should be noted. And immortalized in some small way.

I think how we treat these little opportunities gives us an insight into people’s souls. I’m sure that the Universe has special things in store for a special person like Dawn Staley.

http://owlsports.cstv.com/sports/w-baskbl/mtt/staley_dawn00.html

*** begin quote ***

In just seven seasons at the helm, Dawn Staley is well on her way to shaping the Temple women’s basketball program into the national powerhouse that she promised when taking over on April 12, 2000. The 2004 and 2005 Atlantic 10 Coach of the Year and 2005 Regional Coach of the Year, Staley has won 151 games, becoming the fastest coach in Temple women’s basketball history to reach 100 wins. She has led the Owls to their first-ever A-10 Tournament titles (2002, 2004, 2005, 2006), five NCAA appearances since 2002 and a first-ever Top 25 National Ranking. In 2006, Temple won its third straight Atlantic 10 title, a feat that has been accomplished just one other time in A-10 history. The Owls have won four of the last six Conference titles and are ranked 31st on the nation’s list of most wins over the last seven years. She also helped to produce Temple’s first-ever WNBA First Round Draft Picks, when Candice Dupree (’06) and Kamesha Hairston (’07) were drafted by the Chicago Sky and Connecticut Sun, respectively. All of this hard work has not gone unnoticed. In the summer of 2007, Philadelphia’s favorite daughter was voted Philadelphia’s “Best College Coach” in Philadelphia Magazine’s “Best of Philly” edition.

Most of these accomplishments occurred while Staley maintained her highly publicized “summer job” as an All-Star player for the WNBA’s Charlotte Sting and Houston Comets. Staley retired from WNBA competition following the 2006 season but not before leaving quite a legacy in the 10-year league. During the 2006 season, she was voted an All-Star for the fifth time, becoming the first player in WNBA history to play for both the East and the West squads. She also edged Katie Douglas, 17-16, to win the WNBA’s first-ever Three Point Challenge. Staley was also honored as a member of the WNBA’s All-Decade team. Chosen from among 30 nominees by fans, a panel of national and WNBA-market media and the league’s current players and coaches, the WNBA All-Decade Team recognized the 10 players who have contributed the most to the overall success of the WNBA. Consideration was given to on-court performance and ability, leadership, sportsmanship and community service, as well as to their contribution to team success and the growth of women’s basketball. As if all of this wasn’t enough, Staley now has an award named in her honor. Beginning in 2007, the WNBA will present the Dawn Staley Community Leadership Award to the player who best exemplifies the characteristics of a leader in the community in which she works or lives.

*** end quote ***

Sounds like someone who has talent as well as class.

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INTERESTING: once someone makes a decision

Tuesday, January 1, 2008

http://www.intuitive.com/blog/end_of_year_movie_tally_89100.html

***Begin Quote***

The Shawshank Redemption (#72)

“redemption in prison”

***End Quote***

With all do respect, I think you may have miscategorized or mislabled this gem. Maybe whoever gave you this opinion missed the point. It’s more about liberty. Like Viktor Frankl’s 1946 book Man’s Search for Meaning or maybe Robinson Crusoe, it’s more about a man deciding that while one can be in “prison”, you can really be free. And, that once someone makes a decision, they’re no stopping them unless you kill them. As the young elephant is “trained”, so so do we build our own “jails”. Personally, I’d bump this up a few notches on the “2do” list. imho, fjohn

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INTERESTING: “GOTTADIGG” (ron paul) by

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Gotta Digg

A two minute video that is exceptionally cute. These young ladies were inspiring with the novel message.

She’s trying to get to the Super Bowl as talent

http://www.twoweeksforkina.com/Two_Weeks_For_Kina/Welcome.html


INTERESTING: The “Christmas truce”

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

http://www.refdesk.com

THIS DAY IN HISTORY: from The Free Dictionary
The “Christmas Truce” of World War I (1914)

***Begin Quote***

The “Christmas truce” of 1914, which took place between British and German troops stationed on the Western Front of WWI, left a lasting legacy of mutual respect, kindness, and honor. The unofficial cease-fire began after British troops responded to German caroling with Christmas songs of their own.

***End Quote***

Like the End of Prohibition due to Jury Nullification, all we need are a few good men to step up and say “no”. If you read the whole entry, then imho there must be a special place in hell for the “leaders” who prevented Peace from breaking out.

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INTERESTING: prescriptions for human conduct

Sunday, December 23, 2007

http://fratres.wordpress.com/2007/12/22/foundation-of-catholic-social-doctrines-by-adrian-calderone

Foundation of Catholic Social Doctrines: By Adrian Calderone
Posted on December 22, 2007 by james mary evans

***Begin Quote***

Catholic social doctrines are catholic in a double sense. First, they are taught by the Catholic Church. Second, they are catholic, or universal, in scope. They apply to everyone regardless of religion. Catholic social precepts are universal because their foundation is derived from what is common to all human beings. This foundation comprises principles of natural law, human dignity and fellowship.

1. Natural Law

Natural law is the law of nature.1 We can define natural law as the prescriptions for human conduct derived from reason as applied to the nature of things. By “prescriptions for human conduct” I mean what we ought to do or not to do. Reason, of course, is a fundamental basis for any law. There’s the old saying that where reason ends, so ends the law. And by the nature of things we mean reality, the way things act by their nature, and that includes human nature. This definition also presupposes some purpose. The Ten Commandments are a concise statement of natural law principles.

***End Quote***

I found this because the author is a Jasper Chemical Engineer!

Jaspers come out of Manhattan College with more than just a piece of paper in their tech discipline. Everyone gets “eddycated”. Even the “injineering barbarians”.

Interesting that this identifies the basis of all human rights.

Well done, and worth a read.

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INTERESTING: FACEBOOK lets FANDANGO report

Sunday, December 23, 2007

FACEBOOK lets FANDANGO report that I bought a movie. Good thing it was NOT “girls gone wild volume 23”! This would seem to be “insecure”. I never said they could!

***Begin Quote***

Fandango is sending a story to your profile.
John bought National Treasure: Book of Secrets on Fandango.

***End Quote***

Now, I wonder “boozy college broads” dot com reports?

(From my younger days!?)

Could be humorous to catch the politicians and “holier than thou” types.

Sigh!

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INTERESTING: now I’m compelled to accommodate him

Sunday, December 16, 2007

http://www.lewrockwell.com/callahan/callahan168.html

Solving the Abortion Conundrum
by Gene Callahan

***Begin Quote***

Is there no way out of this impasse? I suggest there is, and will begin my effort to indicate the direction to head with an analogy. Imagine you are sailing your boat along at sea, minding your own business, when you hear a noise behind you. You turn around and find a bedraggled looking man climbing from out of the waves onto your craft.

“Thank God you happened by!” he says. “My ship sank, and I’ve been clinging to the mast for a day now. I had almost given up hope.”

You nod solemnly at him, walk across the deck, pick him up, and throw him back in the ocean. “You see,” you explain to an imagined audience of shocked onlookers, “he was trespassing. I came out here for some solitude, and the idea that now I’m compelled to accommodate him makes me into kind of a slave, doesn’t it?”

***End Quote***

I like looking a difficult problems thru the lens of humor.

The current “system” is a disaster. Putting the gooferment “in charge” of anything isn’t going to “solve” any problem.

If one is “pro-life”, as I am, you must deal with all the children in the foster care system. If you are “pro-choice”, then you have to deal with the “right to life” enshrined in the Constitution. Regardless of side, I think we can all agree that the gooferment has done a terrible job of whatever the problem is?

Yes?

If “no”, please explain the current mess to me.

So, we have turn down the temperature of the debate. As libertarians, the first principle is non-aggression. So no one will be forced to do anything.

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INTERESTING: John Stossel Interviews Ron Paul

Sunday, December 16, 2007

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hPiDvB2Tcqw q

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uOv8b438LrQ

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnR0P9BsN-I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dDNUGPB6wfs

Absolutely great. He asks Ron Paul tough questions and lets him answer.

Makes sense to me!

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